By Clint Thompson
Trees in the cold-hardy citrus region weathered last week’s multiple nights of sub-freezing temperatures, according to one industry expert.
“I had somebody here at the house and they asked, ‘Are you still running sprinklers?’ I was like, ‘Heavens no, but it’s all that ice thawing out and running out into the road.’ It’s a pond out there of melting ice running out of the field, but I think it worked,” said Lindy Savelle, president of the Georgia Citrus Association and member of the Georgia Citrus Commission. “The trees look weathered but alive.”
The subfreezing temperatures started early last week and concluded Sunday night/Monday morning. Savelle’s JoNina Farms is located in Ochlocknee, Georgia, near the Georgia-Florida state line. According to the University of Georgia Weather Network, the number of hours when temperatures dropped below 32 degrees Fahrenheit, from Jan. 15 to Jan. 21, in nearby Camilla, Georgia, was 52.25. That is compared to 27.06 last year and 16.52 in 2022.
Savelle said after the nights of wind chill, the trees took a beating and look like they’ve been through a lot. “They’re vulnerable (this time of year), but they are dormant,” she said. “If you’re going to have a freeze, that’s when you want it, when the trees are in dormancy.”
This is the second year in a row that a winter freeze has impacted citrus trees in the Southeast. In the Christmas 2022 freeze, temperatures dropped below freezing for multiple days. Savelle stressed that event was different than this freeze, and producers were better prepared this time around.
“In 2022, we didn’t turn the water off for four days. We never turned the water off because it never got above freezing,” she recalled.
This time, temperatures were coming in and out of freezing. “That’s very different because the ice would almost melt and then you’d have to start the water again the next evening. It was very different this year,” Savelle said. “People started working a little earlier to make sure their trees were protected properly whether it’s with a tree wrap, microjet, Tree Defender or a Tree T-Pee. People were making sure this time they did all they could to save a tree that survived last year.”